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The Honeymoon Tour
The Honeymoon Tour was the second concert tour and debut arena tour by Ariana Grande in support of her second studio album "My Everything" The tour was officially announced on September 10, 2014. It traveled across North America, Europe, Asia, and South America. The tour began on February 25, 2015 in Independence, Missouri and concluded on October 25, 2015 in São Paulo, Brazil. Tour Background On June 5, 2014, about a month before the release of her "Break Free", the second single from "My Everything"), Ariana confirmed plans of a tour in support of the upcoming album via her Twitter account. Through her account, she stated that she had signed her tour contract and will be visiting continents other than North America, therefore making the tour her first world tour. During this time, there were many rumors of fellow recording artist Iggy Azalea joining Ariana on tour due to their massive success on her track, "Problem", but these rumors were proven false when Ariana and Azalea announced separate headlining tours in September and December, respectively. About a week after the release of My Everything, on September 10, 2014, Ariana officially announced the tour's title, which is a reference to the opening track off of her debut album, "Yours Truly" and the tour's North American leg. The first leg, which was promoted by Live Nation, visited twenty-six cities across North America beginning on February 25, 2015 in Independence, Missouri and concluding on April 16, 2015 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Tickets for the first leg of the tour went on sale to the general public on September 20, 2014 through Live Nation's website. The supporting acts for the North American leg included English pop rock band Rixton, who were promoting their debut studio album, "Let the Road" and Norwegian EDM DJ Cashmere Cat. The European leg of the tour was announced on November 17, 2014, which was about a week after Ariana's performance and multiple wins at the 2014 MTV Europe Music Awards, held in Glasgow, Scotland. The second leg of the tour started on May 14, 2015 in Paris, France and ended a month later on June 16, 2015 in Barcelona, Spain. Tickets for the second leg of the tour became available to the public four days after the announcement, on November 21, 2014. In the months leading up to the tour, Ariana had been publicly tweeting to her followers from rehearsals teasing them about the tour. To show her devotion for the tour, she tweeted: "These rehearsals are kicking my ass but I love it. Really want to make this show the best I'm capable of." Ariana also shared a video from rehearsals that features her practicing with Mi.Mu Gloves, which she will be using onstage during her performances; Mi.Mu Gloves (which were designed and created by Imogen Heap) are used to alter the wearer's voice by moving their hands in different directions. In the rehearsal video, Ariana can be seen singing chords from songs such as "Why Try" while practicing with the technologically advanced gloves. In another rehearsal video posted through the tour's official YouTube page, Ariana shared the band arrangement of "One Last Time", the fifth and final single from "My Everything", which includes an extended string intro and raised key change. On February 25, 2015, Ariana shared an Instagram video of a conversation between herself and her now-deceased grandfather, in which he gives her advice and shows support of her career. It was then revealed during the opening night show that the same video posted is a part of a tribute dedicated to her grandfather that takes place during every concert before she sings the ballad, "My Everything". Also during the opening night of the tour, Cashmere Cat debuted a new collaboration between himself and Ariana, which they had hinted at on Twitter weeks before the tour officially started. About a week after the tour had started, the song, officially titled "Adore", was released to iTunes and became available to stream on Vevo on March 3, 2015. Concert Synopsis The concert starts with a video introduction showing Ariana talking about the tour and leads into a minute-long countdown. She emerges from the stage to perform "Bang Bang" in a black bodysuit with a transparent skirt, followed by "Hands on Me". A short string interlude from the "Honeymoon Band" follows, which eventually transitions to "Best Mistake", which sees the screens splitting with her atop a floating cloud prop wearing a jacket designed to match with the backdrop behind her. She then performs the songs "Break Your Heart Right Back" and "Be My Baby" before leaving the stage for a costume change. The next act starts with the hype man of the tour (who is also Ariana's co-musical director), "DJ Dubz" tap-dancing and leads to a video interlude showing Ariana getting ready for an unknown event in front of a mirror. This leads to the screens splitting once again and sees her riding a chandelier, wearing a sparkly short fringe-style dress accompanied with a feather boa, which drops her on the stage to perform "Right There", then performing the song "The Way" and eventually announcing she will be singing a very old song, "Pink Champagne", followed by the song "Tattooed Heart" before exiting the stage for a costume change. The next act starts with an interlude from the band, which leads to the screen showing the beginning of the music video for Ariana's song "One Last Time", which she performs after in a silver two piece similar to the one she wore earlier, accompanied by a plain dark teal hood (white for later shows). Another video interlude follows, which shows artist Imogen Heap showing off Mi.Mu gloves and explaining how they work, which is followed by Ariana using the gloves on-stage while performing "Why Try." This is followed by another video interlude which shows a conversation between Ariana and her now-deceased grandfather, then singing "My Everything" where she sits on top of a white grand piano wearing a long transparent attachable petticoat covered in fake white roses. She proceeds to perform "Just a Little Bit of Your Heart" in which after she leaves the stage. After an interlude from the crew dancing to her song "Lovin' It", Ariana performs "Love Me Harder" which sees her atop a pedestal above the stage, followed by performing "All My Love" with a very upbeat and overworked choreography. This is followed by her thanking the audience for coming to the show before performing "Honeymoon Avenue" and she goes down the stage yet again. A video interlude features the beginning of the music video for "Break Free", which Ariana performs after and then exits the stage. For the encore, after around one minute of silence, the screen displays a spinning spiral in the form of black and white lines. This transitions to "Problem" in which Ariana wears a black and white dress, reminiscent of the song's music video. Near the end of the performance, black and white confetti fell onto the audience. After the song, Ariana thanks the audience and leaves the stage. Set List This set list is representative of the concert on February 28, 2015; it does not represent all concerts for the duration of the tour. #"Bang Bang" #"Hands On Me" #"Best Mistake" #"Break Your Heart Right Back" #"Be My Baby" #"Right There" #"The Way" #"Pink Champagne" #"Tattooed Heart" #"One Last Time" #"Why Try" #"My Everything" #"Just a Little Bit of Your Heart" #"Love Me Harder" #"All My Love" #"Honeymoon Avenue" #"Break Free" #"Problem" Notes *During the shows in Rosemont, Illinois, Worcester, Massachusetts, and Philadelphia, Ariaa joined Cashmere Cat during his opening set to perform "Adore." Starting from her show in Mexico, she added it in her setlist. *"Baby I" was added to the set list beggining with Asian leg between "Hands On Me" and "Best Mistake" *During the last four shows of the tour, Mexico city, Santiago, Buenos Aires and Sao Paulo, "Why Try" and "All My Love" were not performed. *During the show in Detroit, Michigan, Ariana was joined onstage by Big Sean to perform "Best Mistake" and "Right There." *During the shows in Miami, Florida and Inglewood, California, Ariana was joined onstage by Justin Bieber to perform "Love Me Harder", "All That Matters" (in Miami only), "Where Are Ü Now" (in Inglewood only, without Ariana) and "As Long as You Love Me." *During the show in Inglewood, California, Ariana performed Whitney Houston's "I Have Nothing" and was accompanied by the song's co-writer and producer David Foster. *During the second show in Paris, France on May 15, Ariana was joined onstage by Kendji Girac to perform the French version of "One Last Time". *During the shows in Barcelona, Spain, Mexico City, Mexico, Santiago, Chile and Buenos Aires, Argentina, Ariana performed the Spanglish version of "The Way." *During the shows of the third leg, Ariana performs a mashup of Chaka Khan's song "I'm Every Woman" and Madonna's song "Vogue." *During the show in Manila, Philippines on August 23, Ariana performed Whitney Houston's "I Have Nothing." *Starting from the show in Houston, Texas on September 18, Ariana performed a mash-up of One Last Time and Justin Bieber's "What Do You Mean?". *During the show in El Paso, Texas, Ariana performed a cover of Imogen Heap's song "Hide and Seek," using MiMu gloves given to her by Heap. In every other show in which she uses the "MiMu gloves", she performs "Why Try". *During the shows of the last leg, Ariana started teasing snippets of "Focus" right after performing "Be My Baby." Concert Dates Cancelled Dates Critical Reception In a positive review of the opening show in Independence, Missouri, Timothy Finn of The Kansas City Star gave Ariana praise for her energy and enthusiasm when singing and dancing along with her crew. Finn described the show as an "extravagant mix of music, dance, lasers, videos, pyrotechnics, and costume changes, akin to the kinds of audio-visual spectacles delivered by fellow pop-divas like Katy Perry and Britney Spears." He also noted that even though Ariana proclaimed to be nervous, it didn't show. One complaint made by Finn was the level of volume in the arena. He proclaimed, "The sound was an issue at times, mostly due to high volume." He went on to say that "During a few songs, it was so loud her voice was hard to hear over the music and other noise and lyrics were hard to decipher." In another positive review, Jhon Moser of The Morning Call stated that "Grande's concert at Philadelphia's was very good largely because of her voice", and said "she's simply one of the most pristine, technically talented singers in all of music." Moser goes on to say "from the opening 'Bang Bang,' she immediately showed off her singing chops, offering skyrocket vocals amid actual fireworks." Moser enjoyed the show, but said, "despite its grandeur, that presentation never upstaged the music. The biggest reason for that was that Grande's four-octave voice was more than grand in itself – high and clear, hitting an ethereal note, and even doing some speedy rapping, on "Be My Baby." Morse too praised Grande for her "stratospheric vocals" on "Pink Champagne"'s performance. He continued on to say that "Grande clearly feels comfortable in her talent. She danced free-spirited and without inhibition, even in tall black heels on "Break Your Heart Right Back." Moser liked the idea of making a proper show, "she successfully walked the line between sensuous and appropriate for the largely young-teen audience" and said "she also succeeded in making the concert classy instead of hyper-sexualized as most post-Disney and Nickelodeon singers have." Piet Levy of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel criticized the show heavily by stating Grande "isn't ready for the big leagues." Elaborating on his comment, Levy goes on to say that the performance "didn't signify the birth of the next superstar. Most of the time, it felt like a dress rehearsal." Levy continued to pick apart the performance by stating it was "uninspired and misguided" while also commenting Ariana's "confused, uncertain, insecure" presence throughout the show. He also noted that Grande seemingly held back vocally on songs such as "Bang Bang" and "Why Try", which he also criticized for the use of the Mi.Mu Gloves stating, "Who honestly thought chopping up and electronically manipulating Grande's pretty voice was a good idea?" Despite the harsh criticism, Levy applauded Ariana for her "sensational vocals" during performances of the ballads "My Everything" and "Just a Little Bit of Your Heart". In another mixed review from Jon Bream of the Star Tribune, Bream simply stated that "Grande's not big enough to pull off an arena spectacle." He continued on to say that the performance "was too busy, dimly lit and just ill conceived." He also felt that "The emphasis should have been on the vocals, Grande's forte, and not on overcooked attempts at pizazz." Then he said praising the singer "what you want from Grande in concert is grand vocalizing, that four-octave range cascading with deep emotion. At times, it was evident, especially when there were no dancers onstage." Bream went on to compare some of the tour's aspects to the likes of Katy Perry, Cher, and Madonna, but not in a positive way. He also disliked the use of the Mi.Mu Gloves by stating, "With such a terrific voice in an era of few stand-out female voices, why would Grande want to muck things up with technology?" Bream too praised Grande for her outstanding vocals on the track "Just a Little Bit of Your Heart" stating, "It was her most focused and heartfelt vocal of the evening." Bream also complimented Grande on her "prodigious pipes" during up-tempo pieces such as "Love Me Harder", "Grande displayed her prodigious pipes on up-tempo pieces, too, including "Love Me Harder", which started with her alone atop a pedestal that rose at the back of the stage." Category:Concert tours Category:Concerts